Slaven Bilic’s side will hope for a smoother second season at the London Stadium but with a shift in transfer policy and doubts over the manager’s tactics and future it is hard to detect a clear plan at the club Guardian writers’ predicted position 10th (NB: this is not necessarily Jacob Steinberg’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips) Last season’s position 11th Continue reading…

In part one of our weekly 2016/2017 season review we look at June and July, two very transitional months for West Ham United. June As the dust settled on a fantastic 2015/2016 campaign, the whole West Ham United operation was moving West to Stratford. While many of The Hammers players were away dazzling the world at Euro 2016, so was the manager as Bilic was a popular pundit on ITV. During the exciting…

As the transfer season hots up, we look at the recruitment structures at the 20 clubs who will be playing in the 2017-18 top flight Arsenal’s chief scout is one of the club’s longest-serving employees. Steve Rowley’s reputation was forged when he spotted an 11-year-old Tony Adams while scouting part-time. Rowley went full-time when George Graham was Arsenal manager, and was promoted to chief scout when Arsène Wenger arrived in 1996. He …

This was the result that everybody at Arsenal had craved, not least Arsène Wenger and, in these fragile times, it was one that the club’s directors could greet with relief and a degree of elation. For them, it was Exhibit A in the case for continuity. Arsenal edged back into fifth place in the Premier League and, after the nervy but fortifying draw with Manchester City here on Sunday, it…